Japan’s bar association is urging a Malaysian low-cost carrier to apologize to a Japanese man with disabilities after it refused to check-in his electric wheelchair, eventually causing him to miss his flight at Kansai airport. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations said on Wednesday ...

It’s hard playing second fiddle when you used to be first chair. Just ask Nara, Kyoto’s underpraised southern neighbor. In 710, Japan’s seat of power settled in Nara, on the plains of the Yamato Province. While previous centuries had seen the capital move after ...

Anarchic, anything-goes garage-punk band Afrirampo is defined first and foremost by feelings: The feelings that drive the duo as artists and the feelings they evoke in audiences. As the band returns to the live circuit after a six-year absence, guitarist Mayumi “Oni” Saeki is ...

Nuclear safety, route plans for new shinkansen and maglev lines, and the ruling coalition’s economic policies are some of the top local issues on the minds of Kansai voters as they head into the pivotal Upper House election next month. With last week’s announcement ...

The recent, and continuing, earthquakes in Kyushu once again have many people consulting maps to determine just where Japan’s fault lines are situated, and whether where they live is more, or less, likely to see a large temblor anytime soon. In the Kansai region, ...

Japan’s economy ministry is planning to test cashless payment technology using fingerprints and other biometric markers to make transactions more convenient for foreign tourists, sources close to the project said Tuesday. The trials by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will be held ...

Imagine, if you will, Japan in 2060. Against all odds, the country has accomplished the goal set out nearly a half century before by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to keep the population from dropping below 100 million. Before the Abe government took action way ...

The annual meeting of Kansai area corporate leaders opened Thursday in Kyoto with declarations of support for a recently restarted nuclear power plant and calls for the swift ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The two-day Kansai Economic Seminar brought together over 500 participants including ...

The opening last March of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line extension to Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, brought the Hokuriku region closer to Nagano and Tokyo than ever before, and similar efforts are underway to connect the region with Kansai. But with the line’s extension from Kanazawa ...